In an imaging apparatus such as a digital camera, zooming of a lens is performed by a drive mechanism and a drive motor, and focusing of the same is performed by another drive mechanism and another drive motor. Such a structure hinders miniaturization and cost reduction of, particularly, a compact digital camera.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5-249362 describes a structure of actuating a front group of lenses and a rear group of lenses independently of each other by means of rotation of a drive ring, to thus enable a single drive motor to perform zooming and focusing operations. Moreover, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-47089 discloses that a single drive motor performs zooming operation and autofocusing (AF) operation; that a sun gear, a planetary gear, and a ring gear are provided; that, when the ring gear has rotated, torque of a drive motor is transmitted to focus movement means; and that, when rotation of the ring gear is hindered, the torque is transmitted to zoom movement means.
A digital camera having a plurality of imaging optical systems rather than a single imaging optical system is assumed. A wide imaging range can be covered without replacement of a lens, by means of providing the respective imaging optical systems with different focal lengths. However, there arises a problem of the internal structure of the multiple imaging optical systems becoming more complicated than that of a single imaging optical system. For instance, on the assumption of a digital camera having a first imaging optical system and a second imaging optical system, a total of four drive motors; namely, a motor for actuating a zoom lens of a first imaging optical system, a motor for actuating a focus lens, a motor for actuating a zoom lens of a second imaging optical system, and a motor for actuating a focus lens, are required, which in turn leads to an increase in the size and cost of the digital camera. As described in the related art, another conceivable way is to actuate the zoom lens and the focus lens of the first imaging optical system by means of a single drive motor and to actuate the zoom lens and the focus lens of the second imaging optical system by means of another single drive motor. However, synchronous actuation of the first imaging optical system and the second imaging optical system is desirable. Moreover, it is desirable to be able to actuate the zoom lens of the first imaging optical system and the zoom lens of the second imaging optical system by means of a single drive motor or to actuate the focus lens of the first imaging optical system and the focus lens of the second imaging optical system by means of a single drive motor.